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Clean Power Plan: All Pain, No Gain for West Virginia

Via The Hill:  August 3 will mark one year since President Obama announced the Clean Power Plan (CPP), the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) strategy to decrease carbon emissions from power plants in order to combat the consequences of climate change. While anniversaries are normally cause for celebration, the echoes of joyous celebration will not be […]

Off to the Coal (aka “Swing”) States

August 3, 2016 This week finds the candidates embarking on campaign swings through battleground states – Colorado with nine electoral votes, Virginia with 13, Pennsylvania with 20 and Ohio with 18. Another description for battleground states is “coal states.” Like most toss-up states this year, they either produce or use lots of coal, and sometimes […]

Examining the Impact of the EPA’s Recent Regulatory Activities

Via The Springfield News-Leader: Since 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published nearly 4,000 rules — totaling over 33,000 pages — that threaten affordable energy and jobs in the coal, natural gas and many other sectors of our economy. Many of these have been vast oversteps of federal authority like in the agency’s “Clean […]

Wyo.’s Gov. Mead Blasts Federal Coal Leasing Review

Via E&E Publishing: Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead (R) contends his state was “caught by surprise” by the Obama administration’s decision to halt federal coal leases and review the program, declaring that “coal miners and their families are at risk.” In a 75-page letter last week to the Bureau of Land Management, as well as 4,179 […]

Missouri Faces a Troubling Uptick in Energy Prices

Via The Southeast Missourian: We sometimes forget Missouri has been a coal-producing state for decades. Although not a major producer like Wyoming or West Virginia, our state has mined coal, along with lead, zinc, copper and silver for more than a century. And all of this mining has not only employed thousands in family-supporting, middle-class […]

These Climate Change Regulations Will Increase Your Electric Bill

Via The Daily Signal: Amid the summer heat, American households are thankful foraffordable, reliable air conditioning. But the Obama administration’s war on coal is going to drive up energy prices for families who want to keep cool in the summer and stay warm in the winter. A recent study by Heritage Foundation economists estimates that […]

Via The Morning Consult: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are miles apart on the greenhouse gas-cutting Clean Power Plan. She’s for it. He’s against it. No matter the polarized rhetoric, the plan’s future is much more convoluted than “live or die,” in part because its fate lies in the hands of the courts. Outside observers […]

Holdren the Heretic

July 27, 2016 It’s hardly newsworthy when energy experts question the “keep it in the ground” doctrine, the new battle cry of fossil fuel critics. This doctrine has now become the litmus test for the party faithful gathering in Philadelphia this week. In fact, a specific commitment to keep fossils in the ground was even […]

Raising Coal Leases Would Cost, County Says

Via The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel:  Boosting the price of coal mined from beneath public lands will result in mine closures and worsening damage to rural economies, Mesa County officials told a federal agency. The federal coal leasing program provides an “adequate return to the public,” the county said in a letter to the Bureau […]

Study: Wind & Solar up to 5X More Costly than Existing Coal and Nuclear

Via The Institute for Energy Research:  A new study from the Institute for Energy Research finds that electricity from new wind and solar power is 2.5 to 5 times more expensive than electricity from existing coal and nuclear power. This innovative study relies on data from the Energy Information Administration and the Federal Energy Regulatory […]